Using Reaper's ReaTune To Create Vocal Harmonies

[@onepercentile]

I love how fast you get right into teaching and give arrows and boxes to UI clicking. A+++ to the video production. Thank you!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome, Jordan! This is exactly what I'm going for. Glad to know it's working :-).

[@geoffjenkins4633]

Thanks for sharing. I think this is also a great technique for writing harmonies before tracking them.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

That's a really good idea! thanks for the tip.

[@maryannfarleymusic]

I love that you don't just assume that we know everything, and so you spell out even the little things. So glad I found this channel! I'll be checking out your other Reaper videos. Terrific tutorial. Thank you!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome! And thanks for the kind words!

[@truthprevails4895]

I'm so grateful when tutorials are this clear and don't assume you're an ace audio engineer. I've gone through a few turorials tonight just to understand Reaper's voice plugins, and quite a few are speaking languages I don't understand. But this could not be any more clear. Many many thanks! This video will actually affect what I do this evening. :)

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

That's awesome! Sooo glad you found it easy to follow and more important - helpful. Thanks fro the feedback, too!

[@nosequiters]

fantastic tutorial as others have said the fact youve gone through everhy step and made no assuptions is what makes this op

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@DarioBasset]

Ken, just an hint. if you duplicate the track, (instead of creating a new one) together with the FX, you can save time since the Reatune is already tracked.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Oh wow (he said, slapping his hand on his forehead:-P). Of course! You are correct. Thanks for pointing that out, Dario!!

[@007graeham]

Great job. Thank you

[@Wladivinci]

And just click the "Update" Button and you have all red lines in some seconds :)

[@BanibrataDutta]

Isn't it better to route the track through insted of copying or duplicating? Or ia duplicating a route equivalent to routing the first one dry thru a second signal chain?

[@raimop9225]

🏆 👏 This is the best tutorial in computer screen I have seen in 50 years.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Wow, thanks!

[@zloboslav_]

I had an idea of combining the 2 to play it with the keyboard: 1st put reatune to tune it to a single note 2nd put reavoice and play the chords on the keyboard while singing Thanks for both your videos which helped me think of this! :)

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

So glad it helped. Those sound like creative ways to put this tech to work!

[@7thewitness]

Great tutorial! Just for sake of noting extra possibilities and a more satisfying results, it could be done to sound more natural with some thoughtful use of *ReaVoice*, *ReaTune* and *ReaPitch* (with the *formants*) and *automation envelopes*. It would take a some more time (I don't think it would take very long though) but I think it is still doable. An example of what could be done is to: 1. Duplicate the lead track 2. a. Use *ReaVoice effect* to create the harmony part (according to your tutorial on doing this). Select Elastique Solo as the algorithm (also for the other effects you would add afterwards). _2. b. Alternately use _*_ReaPitch_*_ by adding it as an effect then as an Automation Envelope (_*_Shift (semitones)_*_), then edit the envelope points for variation in pitch._ 3. Add *ReaPitch* effects (if you didn't do so before) to track then add an Automation Envelope (*Formant adjust (semitones)*), then edit the envelope points for variation in formant (higher if it's too husky, lower if it is too much like chipmunk). 4. Add *Reatune effect* with slower attack time; I would suggest 50ms. The aim is to do more fine tuning while preserving the natural sound. This step might even be optional rather than mandatory after the other steps. *_Note:_*_ Elastique or SoundTouch Algorithms might help alot in achieving more realistic results. IMO Elastique Solo is the best bet, but you can try the different algorithms and parameters according to which works best in the use case._

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

yes! Thanks for that incredible detail, Winston!

[@7thewitness]

No problem. Reaper is a great software.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Agreed.

[@voykoloni2392]

that's great, thanks Home brew for the vid, and Winston dehaney for the extra advice, just what I needed to know!!

[@drillgirl718]

bro nice info, let me give u a sloppy kiss, no homo though lol

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

In my case, I wrote the song. So I know what the notes and chords are. But even if you didn't write the song, it's usually just a matter of humming a note and hitting a note on a piano or guitar to find that same note. If you don't have an instrument, you can download a free piano virtual instrument called 4Front Piano. then load that up in the FX button in Reaper and use that to match the note.

[@Hannah-rl3ng]

You are such a good teacher. not only teach well. I also like the arrows pointing and circle where you are taking about. and a close-up look of the screen.. it really did make a big difference thank you. Subscribed... 😊

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks so much! that means a lot to me. So glad it helped you!!

[@herrieedwards4453]

OMG , THANK YOU , I'VE LOOKING FOR THIS TUTORIAL IN SPANISH BUT I LOOKED FOR IT IN ENGLISH AND I FOUND YOUR VIDEO , IT'LL HELP ME WITH MY HOMEWORK

[@umbertoecho1]

Hello Ken.. thank you very much for these amazing tutorial videos for Reaper - which I got yesterday. I've watched many vids recently but yours stand out for ease of understanding. Excellent presentation. Cheers!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks so much, John! So glad to know you found them helpful!

[@JiihaaS]

Nice tutorial! The result sounds really really phasey, which happens due to the tracks being identical, but after processing, going just slightly off. If this is not what you're looking for, you can time-shift the backing tracks by different amounts, so that all of the tracks are more clearly in different phases. This will make the phasing much less prominent, and turn it into a nice chorus-like effect, which often suits this kind of stuff better.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

That is very true. Getting a minimum of 40 milliseconds of difference between two of the parts will allow the detection of that difference, so important in a stereo effect/separation.

[@JiihaaS]

@@HomebrewAudioRecording That's interesting. But why 40+ ms?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

@@JiihaaS Haas Effect. Any time separation of less than 40 ms will be interpreted by the human brain as the same sound. At about 40 ms, we can start to determine the 2 sounds as separate.

[@JiihaaS]

@@HomebrewAudioRecording Woah, turns out I've been intuitively using the haas effect in my mixes, without knowing it has a name. I just read about it and may now rely more on the science behind it, rather than merely my own perception and guessing. Thank you very much for this!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

@@JiihaaS You're welcome! That's awesome!!!

[@TruthSurge]

yeah, eq them a tad differently, shift the pitch away from perfect like with an automated pitch shift where you automate the cents up and down by like 10 or so. That'll help. But this gets you where you can do those other things.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks for the tips!

[@TruthSurge]

oh, that's hardly anything mindblowing. I've been tinkering with singing songs out of my range and pitch shifting me up by even 7 semitones. It loses some quality cuz the shifter doesn't really know what to do all the time. I just try to help it with some multiband eq but it still isn't clean. Luckily, I only do it for fun. :) thanks for the vid. I'm always finding stuff on YT like this. Lots of stuff I'd never even be able to figure out on my own.

[@432Simthology]

YOU!!!!! DUDE YOU ROCK!!!! Seriously. Yer all over the net. I'm a BIG fan!!!!! I realize your comment is a little old but then so am I. I saw the beard and holy diver its you. Ha haaaa Awesome. I really had a black out. \m/ Lights out in London bro seriously.

[@BanibrataDutta]

Great comments. Is there a possibility to add a bit of randomness, and not a fixed number of cents up or down?

[@gurlerium]

you can also use offset. -40 it may also clear the digital sound

[@i5sproductions]

another way is to use reapitch to change your base note to where the harmonie should start, then change the musical scale mode on reatune to the corrosponding key. IMO less computery sounding and still free

[@i5sproductions]

the autotune mode. Also this eliminates manual midi entry which can be time consuming

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

@@i5sproductions Thanks for the tip!

[@irpacynot]

Very cool. You get that nice, Imogen Heap thing going easily.

[@elLlaveru]

Thank you Ken, very well explained

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@seanduddy6583]

How I like to keep it more natural and less like a computer is to comp the same line from other vocal takes (I usually have about 7 or 8 takes per line) and tune that up or down. As it is not the same track doubled it sounds much more natural. Still not perfect, but tucked away in a mix it sounds great.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks for the tip, Sean!

[@pedromoreira6324]

Nice tutorial. Thanks a lot. Of course the guys must know music theory to do those harmonies and fit them in the song chords :)

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome!

[@TerenceKearns]

I had no idea reaper had this built in

[@dayman9432]

for a less computery sound you can also turn the dry/wet down on ReaTune to mix in the original unprocessed signal

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Good tip. Thanks Jaime!

[@raymondmagdallon9033]

Very helpful tutorial. thanks!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome!

[@drutgat2]

Sounds great. I could have sworn that I left a comment sometime within the last year, thanking you for this, but I cannot see it, so Thank You.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks! And if you did, well you're welcome again :-).

[@drutgat2]

I have just seen that I marked these videos to 'Watch Later', and I have so many video in there, that I am pretty sure that I watched them once, intending to do so again, and to make a comment.

[@jtorruel]

Thanks for answering! No man, I got a funky PURPLE on black :) I can't believe that such a detailed program would not let you set those colors.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

I did us an older version of Reaper on this. Let me do some checking on this.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

OK here is how to do it. Go to Options in the menu, then choose Themes toward the bottom of the drop-down. Then click on Default 5.0. That will put the light background back in.

[@josemariahern]

Thank you.Sounds nice!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@stephenlindsay3792]

You could save a lot of time by setting everything up on the 1st harmony track all the way until you've done the play through check, then duplicate that track, instead of repeating the whole process twice

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Haven't used ReaTune enough, personally, since we sing our own harmonies. But any tip to save time is great. Thanks!

[@alfredog2921]

Thank you very much. You are the best I was looking for a tutorial like this👍👏👏👏

[@POPCULTURETUBEX]

That sounds amazing.

[@ctld5266]

Was skeptical at first, but at the end, sound like Daftpunk harmonized vocals !

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Cool! Yeah, this method of using software to create harmonies is usually not the best for natural sounding vocals. But it can be awesome for things like Daft Punk sounding things or other electronica, etc.

[@newmanh]

DAFTPUNK TODAY

[@RobotronSage]

Wow your singing is nice !! :D

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@Hambonillo]

Pretty neat technique. I like the Nectar 2 harmony thing, but I can see how reatune would be useful, and not just for vox. Sometimes you don't have the time or talent to do all of those harmonies the "real" way.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Exactly Jeff!

[@captainhennahead2323]

Wow! Subscribed!!!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@BanibrataDutta]

Great tutorial. Now only if Cocos would add a formant corrector !

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

ReaPitch (also comes with Reaper) has a formant shift tool. You could add that effect to the track.

[@BanibrataDutta]

@@HomebrewAudioRecording interesting. Hadn't noticed that ReaPitch had the formant shift tool. Hopefully using it, a bit of the 'chipmukiness' of the harmonies that are further apart could be corrected to some extent. The further the harmony track's pitch is from the original dry one, grater amount of male formant might lead to slightly more realistic sound. My Reaper knowledge is very basic, is there a humanize function too?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

@@BanibrataDutta No, there is no "humanize" function. You'd have to try to do that with formant adjustments.

[@rendrawic]

To make the sound not robotic you can make upper 100 not 20

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@alanpassmore2574]

E.L.O were doing this 50 years ago... only difference being, they sang all the parts.

[@intelligenceservices]

attack time correction, maybe a more relaxed value than 20ms could result in more natural, but probably a little more compromised, corrective effect. to a robotic pitch corrected effect, I almost want to add 100 wet chorus to the background vocal tracks to give them some random pitch detune :)

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks! You can also use a paid plugin like I show here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3_NdaV9Zd6cpNk or just sing the harmonies yourself if that's a thing you can do (not everyone can) like I do here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJfLfHimYqx0gcU

[@intelligenceservices]

@@HomebrewAudioRecording I was specifically looking for a Reatune video and yours did the trick!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

@@intelligenceservices Awesome!

[@joshuavanderpool2531]

This is nuts

[@powertrihy4874]

Wow, very well done, thanks for this! Subed!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@Dude_Slick]

That came out awesome.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@westyfu]

Neat idea, great vid!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@mearkitek3773]

Been a while....had to get me some Ken fix! Thanks!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thank you! :-)

[@waketp420]

Instead of putting 20 in the attack put 100 or 150 instead for a more natural sounding vocal

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Sure. Definitely try experimenting with the settings. Thanks!

[@cog6627]

great vid. how do you find out what notes you are signing in though? like for example you could tell your notes were in a certain key (eg: C)

[@relicreapers571]

Hey thanks this was a big help 👍

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome!

[@stuartwrigglesworth9339]

Fantastic video

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@chumbo]

Thanks, very useful!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome!

[@ignatiusmashita6492]

Nice

[@jussi-pekkalaakko8768]

Very nice, thank you.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome!

[@nathanalaneller]

I'm trying to make a voice changer application on Reaper to make my voice sound like a Portal Game character. Ive bin looking around & maybe found something in the in the line of Midi control & Auto-tune. The Midi controls the audio tune, changing my live voice. But I don't know how to do this, I know nothing about programing & need a little help if this is possible to have a Auto-Tune setup for my Reaper software chat project. Can u help me out?

[@espr7564]

Very cool thanks 👍

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome!

[@letsplayharmonica]

It's a good stuff to training or even to teach the vocals lines to a real choir singers, isn't it?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Yeah, that's not a bad idea at all! You could show students why certain notes sound great together, and others sound bad. I hadn't thought about that. Thanks :-).

[@bethehype5339]

Thanks

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

You're welcome!

[@tonybenci2796]

I think I'd get someone in to help... pitch correction is the devil work :)

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

This method is admittedly difficult. I just wanted to provide ways for people to have harmonies who couldn't sing them and didn't want to shell out hundreds for pitch software. Perssonally I prefer to sing all harmonies.

[@mdpartslubricantsvn1101]

WOWW!!!!!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

😀

[@Potatointhehood]

but how about other genre,this kind of harmonies wont work in some genre ;/

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

I always recommend actually singing the harmonies - with real voices - if at all possible. This example is just for those to have another tool. It won't sound good on everything, of course. Real harmonies are better always, in my opinion. If you still need to use software, there are paid programs that sound much better. Here is one example - kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3_NdaV9Zd6cpNk

[@yourfather9219]

Perfect ✅

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@lazarosantos9730]

Very good

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks!

[@jtorruel]

Ken---If you were close I would take you to lunch on me! Yoooooo da' maaaan! Many, many thanks!!

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Wow, thanks :-). You're welcome!

[@Mozart-bv4ol2rd9c]

I have a sound driver Focusrite 2i4, it is its driver, midi writes but there is no sound, the vocals when activating the recording pop up (cant T write recorging files doest directori exist)))) everything is set correctly, but there is no sound, I throw all the sound on the rapper MP3, put virtual synthesis, the same thing is clear that the record goes and there is no sound, which I do not right ....

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

I'm sorry, I wrote an answer based on MIDI. So here is a new answer. I don't know why you are doing anything with MIDI on this tutorial video. It doesn't use it. You just use the plugin in Reaper called ReaTune. Did you follow the video step-by-step?

[@ealdydar]

doesnt it sound robotic cause you put attack time way to low?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Sure. A number of these "free" software methods for creating harmonies will sound unnatural. I show a much more natural sounding way to do it with paid software here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3_NdaV9Zd6cpNk. With the free ways, you can adjust attack times and other parameters. But as I say, the best way to record harmony is to sing it yourself on a different track, or have someone else do that. I just wanted to show ways to get harmony using software. Sometimes people WANT the robotic sound as an effect. Or they just want SOMETHING, but have trouble singing harmony themselves. So this is just an alternative way to do things. It is definitely NOT the best or most natural.

[@PrettyLady7282]

my Reatune has a black background and there are no notes name on the left-side. how do we change them please? thanks

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Make sure you have selected the tab on the right that says "Manual Correction" and not "ReaTune - Tuner." If you are in the ReaTune -Tuner tab, the background will be black. And there won't be any notes there until there is audio happening behind it also. Make sure you are in the "Manual Correction" tab.

[@jtorruel]

Hi-How do you change the colors of the screen so as to have a good contrast between pitch and background?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Mine was automatically red against gray. Is that not enough contrast? Or are you referring to something else?

[@danieltv123]

Too robotic for me.. I think you should lower a lot the volume of the harmony, then it would be nice and soft. But thanks for the video

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Sure. That's what think too. But it's an interesting option for free:).

[@danieltv123]

sure, always good to learn this features :)

[@vijay1700]

Is there any Reaper user who has come up with some after/post-recording settings that can give you a studio-grade professional output to vocals like in cinema/film/video songs?

[@Byronic19134]

This question is just way to general. Yes you can get professional sounding mix with Reaper stock plugins, however to do that you're gonna have to learn how to mix.

[@BusterTheWolf]

How can i know what notes should i set for harmonies?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

That's kind of a whole course in itself. But one way is to figure out what chord is playing when a part of the lyric is being sung. And then find the melody note in the chord. Then either of the other 2 notes in the chord (talking standard 3-note chords) will work as a harmony with the melody. Hope that made sense.

[@BusterTheWolf]

@@HomebrewAudioRecording made sense thanks!

[@eilaydrumcovers1202]

This can be work for drums or guitars to?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Harmony on drums? No that would not work. It also would probably not work on guitars either. Though maybe you could do it with a lead guitar part.

[@eilaydrumcovers1202]

@@HomebrewAudioRecording ok but i have a question: i have an electronic drum kit and im recording in reaper with ezdrummer 2 plugin to make drum covers. In the recording i notice that sometime i hit snare to quiet and sometime to loud its also can be the hi hat or the kick drum. Is there any way to balance the sound in reaper?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

@@eilaydrumcovers1202 Yes, there are tools to do what you ask. But it wouldn't be the one in this video, which is for vocal harmonies. What you need is a way to adjust volume of the hits. One of the most common way to even out levels is to use a compressor. There is a built-in one in Reaper called ReaComp. But for more control over it, you might want to use an automation envelope. I show how to use that in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iImudaSjbd9paq8

[@eilaydrumcovers1202]

@@HomebrewAudioRecording Thank you. You have a video about how to use compressor?

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

@@eilaydrumcovers1202 Checkmy post on my site here: www.homebrewaudio.com/vocal-compression-using-reapers-reacomp-effect-plugin/

[@Byronic19134]

You can do this easier with Reavoice.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

And here is my video for that . kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3KXoJupmr9-q7c 😄

[@davidbeach7187]

Just too complicated for this lad

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

I agree, which I why I believe the best way to do it is to just overdub and sing the harmonies yourself if you can. Not everyone can do this. Here is my video on this easily, though: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sF69e4N-o92bkLs I only added a few lessons on how to use software to do it for free, in case folks didn't WANT to try to sing themselves. The "good" software (like in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3_NdaV9Zd6cpNk ) is pretty expensive.

[@thirsty_yt6481]

Cockos will never sound right

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

I gotta agree :-P.

[@teashea1]

Good idea ==== but it does not work. It sounds awful. This is a very well produced video thought.

[@HomebrewAudioRecording]

Thanks. And though it does "work" for what it is, you're right that it does not sound great. My preferred method is to just sing the harmonies. This was just one way to do harmonies with software and it's free. The paid programs like Harmony Engine do a much better job if you want to go the software route for this stuff.

[@nightmares2night77]

Sounds so bad